Category: Slice of Life

Television

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"X-T10" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.2, 1/125 sec, ISO5000
 “X-T10” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going today?

For some reason, Koa has been watching HGTV lately. I suspect it’s because some friends of his are into or something. But anyways, it got me thinking about my own television habits and the types of shows I prefer.

My favorite programs are travel shows and documentaries, so PBS is my favorite American channel. And even when I watch TV Japan, I gravitate towards the travel shows, which can be so beautiful. They don’t have to feature exotic places, but can be just strolling around a new part of town. I find the Japanese travel shows are more laid-back and quiet, while the American shows are kicked up a notch, with loud music, quick zooming cut-scenes, and a need to keep things exciting. I like both approaches, but it’s really cool when a show can just stay on a scene for 15 seconds, with just the natural sound of the environment.

My favorite TV shows:

In general, I have little interest in American television (except for baseball games) and prefer TV Japan, doramas, reading blogs, or watching YouTube videos for my entertainment. Of course binge-watching Portlandia is an exception! Love that show. 😆

Today’s photo is of my wife’s Fujifilm X-T10 camera. She primarily uses a 35mm f/2 lens on it, which is a great combo! I think the camera looks classic as well, although I personally prefer all-black versions. I’m glad she like her camera!

Hope you had a great day.

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Black and White

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"Mouthful of Sushi" Carrollton, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/5, 1/100 sec, ISO1250
 “Mouthful of Sushi” Carrollton, 2016

こんばんは！Hi, how’s it going?

So, today’s photo is one I took a couple Sundays ago when we went to Kula Sushi 🍣 in Carrollton (a suburb of Dallas). I was going through my RSS feed and came across an excellent post about black and white conversion in Lightroom and I thought I’d give it a try.

Usually I will rely on my crutch, Nik Silver FX, but I edited the above photo entirely in Lightroom mainly using the color sliders in the B&W adjustment panel. Many people think that black and white conversion is just selecting “desaturate” or “grayscale” in Photoshop, but there is so much more than that (if you want to delve into it). I’m no expert, but it’s fun to see what the different color sliders will do in a black and white image, and I enjoy learning.

Another thing about the photo is that for the past year I have been making a photo every day, and posting that photo. But today I decided I would just post this older photo. Honestly, the four photos I took today were of my phone, a couple slices of pizza, and a receipt. Not the most interesting (to me) nor the nicest to look at.

But I’m fine with posting an older photo. It’s not the end of the world, is it? Anyways, I really like the image above, and wanted to share it. 😄

I hope you had a nice Monday!

おやすみなさい！

– バロン Barron Fujimoto

Thanks Vin

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"Thanks Vin" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/30 sec, ISO800
 “Thanks Vin” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going?

The highlight of today was watching the Dodgers clinch the NL West title in Vin Scully’s last game at Dodger Stadium, with a walk-off homerun in extra innings. It was pretty amazing, and yet another storybook ending.

Like most people who grew up in Los Angeles, Vin Scully was a constant fixture in the summertime, his voice broadcast over the airwaves whenever the Dodgers played. I remember listening to him call games along with Jerry Doggett and Ross Porter, and then Don Drysdale. You could always count on Vin.

It’s hard to believe that he won’t be calling games next year. It is sad, but this graphic sums it up nicely:

dr-seuss

It’s funny that my kids love the Dodgers as much as I do, being that they were born here in Texas. Here’s a photo of us celebrating the Dodger win today:

"Dodger Fans" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/13 sec, ISO800
 “Dodger Fans” Cedar Park, 2016

I know next year will be strange since we won’t hear Vin any more, and the Dodgers won’t seem the same because of that. But I’m happy that he enriched our lives over all these years.

Thanks, Vin!

Hi-tech and lo-tech

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"Technology Advances" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/13 sec, ISO800
 “Technology Advances” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！Hello, how’s it going?

Today’s photo represents today’s hi-tech part of this post. It’s a top down view of some digital storage – the large hard drive is an older 2TB unit that we’ve had for a few years, the smaller hard drive is a brand new Seagate Portable 3TB unit, and the smallest item is a 32GB USB thumb drive.

I’m surprised at how small the 3TB hard drive is, and how inexpensive they have gotten. I bought it at Costco for only $89! It’s USB3, so it doesn’t even have a separate power cord… it draws power through the USB cable. How cool is that? And I love that it doesn’t take up much space, and will be easy to put into my bag when I take it to work. (I keep one of my 2 backup drives at the office) This is an example of technology making things simpler… I love it. 😀

Now for the lo-tech part of the post. Our kitchen sink got clogged way down past the elbow joint and I spent a couple hours trying to fix it. I removed the elbow joint and stuck our plumbing snake pretty far (about 15 feet) but it didn’t seem to hit any clogs, so we’ll have to call a plumber tomorrow.

I feel so stupid because I put a container’s worth of food through the garbage disposal and that seemed to have caused the clog. The food was actually really soft cabbage (from soup), soft tofu, and other soft veggies. I wouldn’t have thought that those could back up the plumbing but perhaps the pipe was just about clogged already and that food just put it over the edge… 😕

Anyways, I think it’s just amazing that we live in a world where most people have magical electronic devices, but we still suffer from clogged plumbing. 🙄

I hope you had a nice Saturday!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto

Changing Season

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"Swirling Clouds" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/10, 1/750 sec, ISO200
 “Swirling Clouds” Cedar Park, 2016

こんばんは！How’s it going?

Did you know that it’s already Autumn? It’s been so hot lately that I thought it was still Summer! How time flies.

Today’s photo was taken this afternoon, looking straight up. There was a swirling cloud right above our house, and it was changing so rapidly that for a moment I wondered if it was the beginning of a tornado. 🌀 But no, thankfully it was not.

Today my sons and I watched the ceremony the Dodgers had to honor Vin Scully. It was great, and I had a tear in my eye a couple times. Scully has been announcing Dodger games for 67 years now, but this will be his final year. For so many people who grew up in Los Angeles, Vin’s voice was the soundtrack of Summer. He will be missed!

"Vin's Ceremony" Cedar Park, 2016
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/10, 1/4 sec, ISO800
 “Vin’s Ceremony” Cedar Park, 2016

Have a great weekend!

おやすみなさい！

– B Barron Fujimoto